FIGS!
Kim, from Ordinary Recipes Made Gourmet e-mailed me to ask if I wanted to host this week’s Blogger Secret Ingredient. Well, I couldn’t say no…I have a bad habit of doing that. What was I thinking???? Not only am I moving this week, my cousin is getting married on Saturday as well! Oh the trouble I get myself into.
I picked delicious, dainty figs because, a) I love them and b) they are in season right now. There are endless possibilities when it comes to figs. You can use all different kinds, salty or sweet, hot or cold, dessert, main or appy, fresh or dried….you name it and you can do it with figs!
Here are some random facts (via Wikipedia) about cute, little figs:
- The edible fig is one of the first plants that were cultivated by humans.
- Figs are one of the highest plant sources of calcium and fiber.
- Although commonly referred to as a fruit, the fig fruit is actually the flower of the tree.
So, if you want to participate using Figs as this week’s secret ingredient, please submit your recipes. Be aware that I AM moving this weekend (Sunday through Monday), which means my computer will be disconnected for a time come then. I will do my best to make sure everything is done on time, but please keep in mind that things will most likely be a little on the late side.
You can either submit your recipe by commenting (below) and leaving a link to your blog post (your post should link back to this post, or to my blog) OR you can e-mail it to: elizabeth [at]guiltykitchen [dot] com
I’ll reply back to your post once I receive it.
Deadline: Please submit recipes before 9:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time) on Sunday, August 30th. There will be a round-up of everyone’s posts on Monday, September 1st (sometime later in the day). The winner will also be announced on Monday along with next week’s host site.
Your time starts… NOW!
A RT on Twitter would be much appreciated so you can let others know about the challenge…
This is a list of other Challenge Hosts & Ingredients (this is week 45). Be sure to be a friendly food blogger and check out all of the other blogs!
Week 44: Ordinary Recipes Made Gourmet – Peanut Butter
Week 43: The Sophisticated Gourmet – Brown Sugar
Week 42: My Kitchen Addiction – Lime
Week 41: Nutmeg Nanny – Coffee
Week 40: Chaya’s Comfy Cook – Broccoli
Week 39: Healthy Delicious – Plums
Week 38: Zoe - Feta
Week 37: ChezWhat- Potatoes
Week 36: Cinnamon, Spice & Everything Nice – Blueberries
Week 35: Girlichef -Greens
Week 34: The Ungourmet – Watermelon
Week 33: Bread + Butter – Bell Pepper
Week 32: Burp and Slurp -Corn
Week 31: Say Yes to Salad – Kabocha
Week 30: Thinspired – Bananas
Week 29: To Be The Whole Package – Almonds
Week 28: Kristas Kravings – Lemon
Week 27: From French Fries To Flax Seeds – Coconut
Week 26: Plentiful Plants – Avocado
Week 25: Training Fuel – Eggs
Week 24: Dinner at Christina’s – Cabbage
Week 23: Hey What’s for Dinner, Mom? – Strawberries
Week 22: One Bite at a Time – Basil
Week 21: Just Sweet Enough – Black Beans
Week 20: What I Ate Yesterday – Kale
Week 19: What’s for Dinner – Orange
Week 18: BranAppetit! –Spinach
Week 17: Tales of Expansion Dates
Week 16: Biggest Diabetic Loser – Zucchini
Week 15: Sweet & Natural –Peppermint
Week 14: bella eats [and runs] – Ginger
Week 13: Coffee Talk – Walnuts
Week 12: For the Love of Oats – Pumpkin
Week 11: Trying to Heal – Sweet Potatoes
Week 10: The Inner Workings of a College Graduate – Eggplant
Week 9: Itzy’s Kitchen – Pears
Week 8: The Fitnessista – Cranberries
Week 7: Tri to Cook – Lentils
Week 6: Rhodey Girl Tests – Polenta
Week 5: Eating Bender – Butternut Squash
Week 4: Care to Eat – Apples
Week 3: On a Lobster Placemat – Mushrooms
Week 2: Hangry Pants – Tomatoes
Week 1: sportsnutritionliving – Quinoa
For this week’s Blogger Secret Ingredient Challenge (hosted by Kim of Ordinary Recipes Made Gourmet), the ingredient chosen was peanut butter. Ohhhhhh peanut butter, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
Peanut Butter cups
PB ice cream pie
PB cookies
PB cheesecake
Thai peanut sauce
PB sandwiches
PB smoothies
Shall I go on?
It was a tough decision, but looking around the house for accompanying ingredients, it was made much easier. I didn’t have much to work with and the deadline was coming up fast. I looked online for interesting ideas, but I didn’t really come across anything spectacular. I almost made Peanut Butter balls from a recipe out of an old Gourmet magazine, but they didn’t look that easy…too much chilling time. When I make dessert, it needs to be ready…and fast. Too much anticipation and I lose my love for it. I mean, I want to enjoy my dessert without too much sweat, blood and tears.
As I’ve mentioned before, experiments in baking or confectionery don’t always turn out so well for me, but these are fantastic. These are definitely going to be my new go to dish. My signature dessert, if you will. So give ‘em a try, you will not be disappointed.
What’s with the name “Idle Hand Bars” you ask? Well, idle hands are the Devil’s playground and the Devil definitely made me make these, because they are sinful. Eat your boring, chocolate heart out, Devil’s Food Cake!
Idle Hand Bars
Base Layer
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 Tbsp. Cocoa
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup coarsely crushed pretzels
1. In double boiler (or a bowl resting over a pot of lightly simmering water), melt the first three ingredients.
2. While still over water, add egg and beat to combine (will thicken quite a bit here). Remove from heat and add crumbs and pretzels.
3. Press into an 8 x 8 cake pan. Set aside.
Middle Layer
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly.
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup smooth, natural peanut butter (no salt added, reduce salt accordingly if using salted)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1. Add peanut butter and butter together in small bowl.
2. Mix in sugar, salt and vanilla to form a thick paste.
3. Dump onto base layer and smooth over, patting down to make a flat, even layer.
Top (final) Layer
5 oz. Semi Sweet Choclate chips (or other fine chocolate)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
Pink Himalayan salt (or other fine sea salt)
1. In double boiler (or microwave), melt butter and chocolate chips together. Stir until complete dissolved and smooth.
2. Pour over peanut butter layer and spread out evenly.
3. Cool in fridge for about 5 minutes (should still be slightly soft on top but not warm).
4. Sprinkle, lightly, with Himalayan salt. Return to fridge (or freezer, if you’re in a hurry like I was), and let cool completely to become hard.
5. Cut into small squares and don’t say I didn’t warn you….these things are addictive.
I think these would be fantastic if they were left to mellow in the freezer for an hour or so. I love frozen desserts, and they last much longer when stored in the deep freeze. Happy snacking!
If you can’t find pink Himalayan salt, try using Fleur De Sel or another flaked salt. Table salt would do in a pinch, but it would probably make these too salty. Branch out, try new things! Go find some cool, new and interesting salts!
Sometimes, like Friday night or on a busy Saturday evening, you just don’t want to have to cook too much. Maybe you had a big lunch out with friends, or you have a movie to get to in a hurry. Well, there are healthy, fresh, tasty meals just waiting to be made and they really don’t take too long at all.
I made these two salads for just such an occasion. Filling, satisfying and eaten with quickly broiled fish or other seafood, this would be a complete meal. The dressing is very versatile, you could really use it on anything. Play with the vinegars or even the herbs and you have yourself an entirely different dressing again!
I know I use entirely too much cilantro, but you either love it or hate it, and guess what? I love it.
Jicama Mango Salad
1 Large Jicama
1 Large Mango
1. Peel the Jicama and julienne.
2. Peel mango and cube flesh.
3. Mix together in large bowl. Add dressing and allow to sit for 30 minutes or so, before consuming.
Tomato, Cucumber, Avocado and Feta Salad
2 Tomatoes
1 Large cucumber
1 Large avocado
1/2 cup feta cheese
1. Cube tomato, avocado and cucumber and add to large bowl.
2. Crumble feta over top, and mix to combine.
3. Add dressing to salad and serve immediately.
Honey Cilantro Basil Dressing
1/4 cup Rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup Apple cider vinegar
Juice of 1 Lime
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp + 1 tsp Honey
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup cilantro (loosely packed)
1/4 cup basil (loosely packed)
Salt & White pepper to taste
1. In small bowl, combine vinegars, Lime juice, Dijon & honey.
2. Drizzle olive oil into vinegar mix while whisking vigorously.
3. When all is combined, add in chopped herbs, salt and pepper. Allow to sit for an hour or more to allow flavours to meld and intensify.
I know this blog is seriously lacking in the meat department. I can’t help it. I love my veggies and my strict food budget sometimes does not allow for the amount of money it costs to buy slabs of animal flesh. Soon enough (less than two weeks and counting!) I will be going to my very own retro style butcher shop. It even has it’s own hanging room, or whatever it is you call it where the carcasses are hung before butchering. I seriously cannot wait. Although I despise moving more than I despise fast food, the thought of getting out of the city and into the sticks is so very, very appealing. We’re even going to try our hand at backyard chickens. Any info or advice would be very much appreciated. I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to my dog, let alone small brained fowl who poop out eggs everyday (everyday or every other day?).
In celebration of the coming fall months (my most favourite of seasons!) and to use up some of those apples that are still hanging around my kitchen, I decided stuffed pork chops were in order. Sadly I didn’t inspect my chops carefully for size, and they were a bit too small to stuff, but this recipe overcomes that. They became stacks of a sort….delicious savory pork topped with slightly softened, herb coated apples and sweet, caramelized onions. All contrasting with the salty layer of cheese to top it off. This recipe calls for almost a whole bottle of beer as well, because when I used to work in a brewpub (or gastropub as they put it), it was mandatory to try to fit beer into every recipe.
As much as this meal is a celebration of the coming autumn season, it is also a salute to the end of summer. The bounty that is the ridiculous amounts of zucchini is upon us and we don’t even have a zucchini plant! Wherever I turn, people are trying to give away more zucchini. It just keeps coming our way.
This is a very easy, fast recipe that will eliminate at least a couple of your overabundant zucchinis (or more depending on family size).
So give it a try, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
I recommend making the apples, caramelized onions and zucchini pancake batter in advance, that way it is just a matter of making the pancakes, assembling it all and finishing the pork in the oven.
For the Caramelized Onions
1 Large yellow onion (or white, or vidalia, or Walla Walla, don’t matter)
1 tsp. canola oil
about 3/4 cup dark beer (I used a honey brown), you can drink the rest, I did!
1 Tbsp yellow or brown sugar (optional)
Salt & pepper to taste
1. Peel onion and slice in half down the centre (top to bottom). Now slice thinly into half moons.
2. Heat oil in high walled sauté pan, add onions. Cook for a few minutes until they begin to soften.
3. Add 1/2 cup beer, sugar, salt & pepper.
4. Allow to cook until all liquid is gone and a glaze begins to form on the bottom of your pan.
5. Use the remaining beer to deglaze the pan (you can so this a couple of times).
6. Set aside.
Apple “Stuffing”
2 Apples, peeled, cored and cubed
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 tsp. ground sage or use fresh if you have it
1/4 cup beer (I used the same beer as for the onions)
salt & pepper to taste
1. In a saucepan, add all ingredients and cook on medium for about 5 minutes, just enough to soften the apples.
2. Remove from heat and set aside.
For the Pork Chops
Two butterflied Pork Loin chops (boneless)
S & P
1 tsp Canola oil
2 oz. (about 1/2 a cup) Feta cheese (Brie would work really well too)
1. Heat oven to 400°F.
2. Season pork with salt & pepper.
3. Heat a heavy skillet over medium high. When ready, add in pork and allow to sear for 3-4 minutes on each side.
4. When finished searing (they are meant to be undercooked at this point), put pork chops on a baking tray. Crumble cheese over top, then add a layer of apple, then top with a layer of onions.
5. Bake in oven for about 5 minutes or until pork chops are done to about medium.
6. Allow to rest a few minutes before devouring. Serve with Zucchini pancakes.
Zucchini Pancakes
2 Medium sized zucchinis
1 large egg
1/3 cup all purpose flour (whole grain would work fine)
1/2 cup Whole grain cornmeal
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 Tbsp sour cream
S & P
1 tsp canola oil
1. In a large bowl grate zucchini.
2. Add in all other ingredients and stir well to combine. Should be the consistency of a pancake batter, if not, add a little more all purpose flour.
3. Heat oil in a large heavy skillet on medium high. Scoop by spoonfuls into hot pan, turn when edges begin to brown.
4. When cooked through, serve with sour cream.
These pancakes are great for little ones too. My son ate 1 1/2 of them before giving up, but that’s serious progress in this house! I am determined to rouse him from this pickiness and make him into Mommy’s little foodie. It’s a lifelong project, but I have determination. When I’m old, tired and beginning to lose that creative edge, I hope to have a gourmand on hand to make me food.
I have a funny story from last week. Well, maybe not funny haha, but funny in it’s own little way…
We were to be witnesses for some friend’s of ours as they signed the papers for buying a new house. There were no Realtors involved, so we would be the only one’s there besides the sellers and our friends. Also, we had to look after their little girl and our little boy who ran around the property for over an hour as the two parties bartered inside.
As we were wandering around the property though, we noticed a big apple tree bending under the weight of it’s unpicked fruit. Being the Karmic observer that I am, I told my husband not to touch. Well, we all know how that went…soon enough the kids were standing under the tree too, one saying “snack! snack!” the other (ours) grunting and pointing up.
My husband, apparently, was familiar with this type of apple, as he had a neighbour as a child who had a tree in their yard. I’m guessing little Mr. Guilty probably stole half of their fruit too. So, we picked a few fruits and then wandered around some more waiting and waiting and waiting for them to finish. Finally, when all the signing of documents was finished, the kindly Scottish couple who owned the house told us to pick all that we could reach. They didn’t like those apples anyway. And the race was on! We grabbed as many bags from our car as possible and picked every fruit from every low and medium hanging branch on that poor tree.
When we got home I realized something. We now had 20 lbs. of cooking apples and they were ready to be eaten now. What to do….there’s only so much apple pie/crumble/bread/cake/muffins, etc a person can consume. So I decided to push myself past any comfort zone I have ever known……Preserves. My mother used to can things when I was a child, but I never helped (much) and I don’t have a giant pressure cooker like she did.
I have never attempted to make anything that would store for more years than I’ve been alive, but what better time to try. I just hate to waste food. I really didn’t want to make applesauce though, blech…my son is too old for purées anyway and I’m just not a fan.
After scouring the internet for recipes for a really good apple butter and methods of preserving it, I came up empty handed. Nothing really struck my fancy. Every recipe called for enormous amounts of sugar or the use of apple juice or applesauce, none of which I had or cared to purchase for this recipe. I just wanted to reduce apples into delicious, smooth, rich, apple butter! So I had to come up with my own recipe, and here I will share it with you because, wow, it’s amazing (if I do say so myself). If you like a slightly tart, spice filled, aromatic, jam like spread for your morning toast, than this is it!
Not Yo Mama’s Apple Butter
15 apples ( I used a tart cooking apple, like this)
1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup 100% pure maple syrup
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1. Peel, core and cube apples. Place in larg,e heavy bottomed saucepan. Add all remaining ingredients to apples.
2. Set to medium high (around 8 on a regular stove) and get it boiling. Reduce to a simmer and allow to cook down for pretty much the whole day. I think I cooked mine for about 10 hours. You will know when you have the right consistency. It should be as thick as still hot porridge or oatmeal and stick to the spoon when lifted out of the pot.
3. Wash all your jars with hot, soapy water first. In another large pot, add jars and lids you will be using to store your apple butter (I used 4 large jars). Cover in water and bring to a boil, boil for 10 minutes to sterilize.
4. When your apple butter is finished, keep it at a low boil (it needs to be hot to put in the jars).
5. Remove your jars from the water one at a time and empty the water out of the jars (but leave the water in the pot, add more if needed and keep boiling) your jars should be hot enough to evaporate most of the remaining water inside them. Fill each jar to almost the top (about 1/4″ away from rim). Wipe any remaining apple butter away from the rim and screw lid on tight. Do this for all your jars.
6. Now put your jars back into the pot with at least an inch or so of water covering them and boil for another 5 minutes (more if you are above sea level).
7. Remove from water and set to cool overnight without jostling too much. In the morning check your seals. If they are depressed, congrats, you’ve just canned something! Yay! If they pop up and down, you have failed. I’m guessing you could try to do the whole process again, but I wouldn’t. Just take it as a lesson learned.
Serve with some delicious homemade English Muffins (recipe coming soon!)
We’ve been keeping an open jar of this stuff in the fridge now for the past week. It’s a big hit with my son and me too. Tart, full of spicy deliciousness and thick to boot. If you have any tips or tricks for me, feel free to leave a comment, I love feedback!
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